Matthew's First Christmas
Nadene recently travelled to South Sudan and the overwhelmed Malakal Refugee Camp where she was heartbroken to hear the stories of people living there.
By Nadene Robertson, Media Consultant for World Vision UK
Matthew sees his mother and runs towards her, arms outstretched and grinning a toothless smile. She scoops him up into her arms and hugs him. It’s a beautiful scene, or at least it should be.
Matthew is a beautiful 20 month old baby. But he’s caked in mud and filth, wearing the remnants of the babygro he was wearing when his mother Mary picked him up from his cot and fled their home in terror as rockets and heavy artillery pounded the once peaceful city of Malakal in South Sudan where they lived.
His bottom is exposed because he’s grown too big for Mary to fasten the buttons on his babygro. Flies buzz around him. The serious lack of hygiene places this gorgeous little boy at risk of serious disease. Many children here are sick with hunger or dysentery. Even more terrifying, there has recently been an outbreak of cholera in the temporary United Nations camp where Matthew and his mother are now sheltering.
Boxing Day disrupted
It was Boxing Day 2013 when they fled. Matthew had just had his first Christmas. His mum says he, like so many children, was more interested in the wrapping paper than the toy car and ball she’d bought him for Christmas. She and her husband put him to bed and went to sleep. They woke at dawn to the sound of gunfire. In the chaos that ensued that day, when thousands of people were killed and tens more thousands displaced, Matthew’s father was killed. He had gone to the market to try and buy food supplies when a rocket landed nearby. As Mary hurriedly tried to throw the family possessions into a bag, a neighbour ran into the house screaming: ‘Your husband is dead. Go NOW.’
In shock and with no time to grieve for even a second, Mary picked up her baby and ran as fast as she could, joining the snaking trail of people running for their lives towards a United Nations base two kilometres away. The base, the size of three football pitches, was staffed by 200 Indian peacekeepers. By the end of the day over 20,000 terrified people had crammed inside, and they are still there today. Fighting still rages outside between anti-government and government forces who battle for control of both the city and the country. To leave may mean certain death. So Mary and Matthew stay inside and try to manage as best they can.
A dismal reality
Conditions inside the base are indescribable. Stinking mud, sewage and rubbish cover the ground. Adults and children shelter in basic tents and under tarpaulin provided by aid agencies, but space is at such a premium that several families must share one tent. World Vision and other agencies have provided clean water pumped from a nearby river as well as emergency food supplies, basic essentials like mattresses and plastic buckets and hygiene kits. Keeping clean can mean the difference between life and death for a small child like Matthew.
Matthew isn’t the only baby to have grown out of his clothes. All over the camp there are children playing in the remnants of their nightclothes – stripy pyjamas and thin cotton nightdresses testament to the day Christmas joy turned into horror.
Mary could never have comprehended that almost a year later she and her son would still be sheltering inside the base. “We are living like animals, like rats,” she says blankly. She weeps when she wonders what became of her husband’s body. “The vultures licked him clean.” Sadly she’s right. All along the roads lining the camp are glinting white bones, the remains of those who didn’t make it.
It is a sad reality that baby Matthew’s second Christmas will be spent inside the base. No presents and only maize to eat - if they are lucky. This smiling toddler is still too young to fully understand the despair and misery that stalks the camp and the temporary living hell it has become.
Mary holds him as tears fall down her cheeks. “Some days I wake and I want to give up. How can I go on like this?” At that Matthew reaches out and strokes her face. For the first time in our conversation something akin to a smile crosses her face.
“I can’t give up. I must keep going for my baby. This is our life now. I have to live it as best as I can.”
Since fighting broke out last December over a million people have been displaced in South Sudan, and the most recent peace talks have been stalled since August. World Vision has been working in Malakal and other refuges to help families stay clean, give children a safe place to play, and help to reunite children who were separated from their parents following the outbreak of violence.
*Mathew and Mary’s names have been changed to protect their identities and keep them safe.